February Revolution Research Articles

British-Armenian Military Relations in Transcaucasia During the Early Stages of the Russian Civil War (1917–1918): A Critical Analysis

This article offers a critical examination of the British-Armenian military relations in Transcaucasia during the early stages of the Russian Civil War (1917-1918), highlighting the complex interplay between British foreign policy, imperial ambitions, and local nationalisms.The plight of the Armenians resonated deeply with the British public and politicians during the First World War. A crucial moment came when the Russian monarchy fell, triggering a complex scenario in Transcaucasia and necessitating a thorough reshuffle of Britain’s foreign and military strategies in the region. In this context, the present study analyses Britain’s political maneuvers and dealings with Armenians in response to the evolving situation in Transcaucasia after the February Revolution. This article shows that notwithstanding the humanitarian ethos that was prevalent in British political rhetoric after the February Revolution in Russia, the strategic undertakings of Britain on the Caucasus front were heavily influenced by its imperial politics and determination to maintain its role in shaping the future of the Middle East and larger Asia. Highlighting the contradictions in British policies toward the region, it argues that these policies were mainly characterized by a colonial mindset that regarded Armenians and other local forces merely as serviceable instruments for realizing a broader imperialist agenda.

Ivanovo-Voznesensk Gendarmerie Department: Technology of Political Investigation on the Eve of the February Revolution (based on the materials of the Democratic Press of Ivanovo-Voznesensk)

Ivanovo-Voznesensk Gendarmerie Department: Technology of Political Investigation on the Eve of the February Revolution (based on the materials of the Democratic Press of Ivanovo-Voznesensk)

Freedom of speech and the right to information in gemeronyms of the periodical press of Yakutia (1887-1928)

This article examines the connection of the gemeronyms of Yakut periodicals with cultural and historical phenomena, where the desire for freedom of speech and the right to information influenced the formation and dissemination of a democratic and national press in Yakutia. However, during the historical process, there was no stable media system during this period. Consequently, the press of Yakutia reflected the movement of the socio-political life of that time and depended on fluctuations in political power. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time in Yakut journalism, an attempt was made to comprehend and systematise the names of newspapers and magazines as an independent unit, taking into account its functional specificity in communication processes. The purpose of the study is to determine the peculiarity of the reflection of freedom of speech and the right to information in the gemeronyms of newspapers and magazines in Yakutia in the pre–revolutionary period, after the February Revolution and during the period of liberalisation of Soviet power. The relevance of studying the gemeronym has become the basis for further research, which is due to its special role in the historiographical process as a whole. In our case, a distinctive feature of the media onomasticon is its interdisciplinarity. The study used methods of observation and content analysis of the hemeronyms of periodicals as onomastic realities. In addition, the method of retrospective analysis using "keywords" and "key meanings" is used to systematise the history of the Yakut periodical press.

Февральская революция в Москве в наблюдениях, слухах и диалогах. Из дневников Н.П. Вишнякова

Ход Февральской революции в Москве является одним из «белых пятен» в истории падения монархии в России. В связи с тем, что основные события революции происходили в Петрограде, Могилеве и Пскове, политическая и общественная жизни Москвы февраля – марта 1917 года оказалась мало изучена историками. Данная статья представляет собой публикацию отрывков из двух рукописей гласного городской думы Николая Петровича Вишнякова: «Автобиографических заметок» и «Думских воспоминаний и впечатлений». Приводимые записи датируются 21 февраля – 31 марта 1917 года. Первая часть записей носит описательный характер, воссоздает атмосферу тех дней. Вторая часть написана вскоре после революции и представляет собой первые попытки анализа причин падения монархии. Представляет интерес описание городской жизни, зарисовки быта, невероятных слухов, массовых настроений и волнений, охвативших Москву. Вишняков приводит характеристики некоторых деятелей революции, например, министра Временного правительства Николая Кишкина и московского городского головы Николая Астрова. В публикации приведены диаметрально противоположные оценки, данные революции двумя близкими автору людьми: известным историком, академиком Владимиром Герье и оренбургским губернатором генералом Михаилом Тюлиным. Публикация продолжает издание эпистолярного наследия Вишнякова, начатого в 38-ом томе журнала «Исторический вестник». The Moscow events of the February Revolution remain a «blank spot» in the history of the monarchy's downfall in Russia. Given that the main events of the revolution took place in Petrograd, Mogilev, and Pskov, the political and social life of Moscow during February and March 1917 has been scarcely studied by historians. This article publishes excerpts from two manuscripts by Nikolai Vishnyakov, a vocal member of the City Duma: «Autobiographical Notes» and «Duma Memories and Impressions». The entries provided are dated from February 21 to March 31, 1917. The initial part of the records is descriptive, vividly capturing the atmosphere of that days. The latter part, written shortly after the revolution, attempts to analyze the causes of the monarchy's downfall. The description of city life, everyday scenes, wild rumors, and the widespread unrest that swept through Moscow is of particular interest. Vishnyakov offers insights into various revolutionary figures, including Provisional Government Minister Nikolai Kishkin and Moscow Mayor Nikolai Astrov. The publication offers contrasting assessments of the revolution from two acquaintances of the author: distinguished historian and academician Vladimir Guerrier and Orenburg Governor General Mikhail Tyulin. The publication continues the unveiling of Vishnyakov's collection of letters, commenced in the 38th volume of the Historical Reporter.

ВЛАДИМИР КУЗЬМИН: СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНЫЙ ОБЛИК СВЯЩЕННИКА

The object of the study is the personality of the missionary priest of the Minusinsk District Vladimir Kuzmin, the subject is his activity in the context of the concept of “sociocultural image”. Based on the biographical research method, the main aspects of V. Kuzmin’s life were studied. The paper sets the following objectives: to reveal the level of education of the priest, to analyze the situation in society, to study the main directions of cultural and educational activities, to outline the position during the First World War and the revolutions of 1917. Particular attention is paid to the activities of V. Kuzmin in the place of a missionary priest in Askiz parish. His merits in the field of combating drunkenness among parishioners and childhood alcoholism are noted. V. Kuzmin was particularly concerned about drunkenness among the non-Russian population. On his initiative and under his leadership, temperance societies and the Brotherhood of Prayer and Temperance were created in the name of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the Minusinsk District. The problem of drunkenness and alcoholism became especially urgent during the First World War. V. Kuzmin actively collaborated with the magazine “Yenisei Diocesan Gazette”. His publications on the pages of the magazine were always timely and devoted to topical issues in the daily life of not only parishioners, but also the population of the entire province. At meetings of diocesan congresses and pastoral and missionary meetings, he advocated a complete state ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages. As a missionary priest, he proposed specific measures to improve missionary activities. As a dean archpriest, V. Kuzmin was fruitfully engaged in social and political work. He was a member of the Minusinsk City Duma and a member of the District government. During the period of the revolutions of 1917 and the civil war, there was an evolution in the socio-political views and activities of the archpriest V. Kuzmina. He welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 and stood at the head of the Minusinsk group of the Labor People's Socialist Party. Missionary priest V. Kuzmin was an interesting, versatile personality who deserves further attention from researchers.

Иван Ильин и Алексей Боровой: история одной дружбы

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations that established between the philosopher, sociologist, anarchist A.A. Borovoi and the young philosopher I.A. Il’in. The ideological and political position held by A.A. Borovoi as a Private Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University is reconstructed, as well as his attitude to other colleagues, in particular to P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.A. Kistyakovsky. The evolution of the views of the young Ilyin, who initially sympathized with radical political trends and the anarchist movement, and then switched to the positions of liberal conservatism, is demonstrated. Based on memoirs, letters stored in the archives of A.A. Borovoi in RSALA (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), memoirs and letters of I.A. Il’in, as well as studies dedicated to Borovoi and Ilyin, the period of meetings of thinkers in Paris in 1911–1912 is reproduced in more detail. The details of the changes that occurred at the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University in connection with the “Casso Case”, which had a different impact on the fate of thinkers, are revealed. The relationship between Borovoi and Il’in with B.A. Kistyakovsky, who was also in Europe in 1911, is mentioned. An assumption is made about the reasons for the cessation of communication between I.A. Il’in and A.A. Borovoi during the World War I, which could be associated both with the ideological differences between the philosophers and the activities to which each of them devoted himself during these years. The meeting between Borovoi and Il’yin after the February revolution could have given rise to a resumption of communication, but the difference in assessment of the October revolution (imaginary or real) became a stumbling block. Based on the fragment mentioned by Borovoi from the book by G.I. Kish “Hitler and others” and the archive of I.A. Il’in there is reproduced an episode of the thinker’s speech at a meeting of the “Men’s Club” in March 1930. The article recreates the history of relations between I.A. Il’in and representatives of the conservative wing of German entrepreneurs and the failed cooperation with the centrist party represented by German Catholics.

Иван Ильин и Алексей Боровой: история одной дружбы

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations that established between the philosopher, sociologist, anarchist A.A. Borovoi and the young philosopher I.A. Il’in. The ideological and political position held by A.A. Borovoi as a Private Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University is reconstructed, as well as his attitude to other colleagues, in particular to P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.A. Kistyakovsky. The evolution of the views of the young Ilyin, who initially sympathized with radical political trends and the anarchist movement, and then switched to the positions of liberal conservatism, is demonstrated. Based on memoirs, letters stored in the archives of A.A. Borovoi in RSALA (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), memoirs and letters of I.A. Il’in, as well as studies dedicated to Borovoi and Ilyin, the period of meetings of thinkers in Paris in 1911–1912 is reproduced in more detail. The details of the changes that occurred at the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University in connection with the “Casso Case”, which had a different impact on the fate of thinkers, are revealed. The relationship between Borovoi and Il’in with B.A. Kistyakovsky, who was also in Europe in 1911, is mentioned. An assumption is made about the reasons for the cessation of communication between I.A. Il’in and A.A. Borovoi during the World War I, which could be associated both with the ideological differences between the philosophers and the activities to which each of them devoted himself during these years. The meeting between Borovoi and Il’yin after the February revolution could have given rise to a resumption of communication, but the difference in assessment of the October revolution (imaginary or real) became a stumbling block. Based on the fragment mentioned by Borovoi from the book by G.I. Kish “Hitler and others” and the archive of I.A. Il’in there is reproduced an episode of the thinker’s speech at a meeting of the “Men’s Club” in March 1930. The article recreates the history of relations between I.A. Il’in and representatives of the conservative wing of German entrepreneurs and the failed cooperation with the centrist party represented by German Catholics.

State bodies’ formation for ensuring railway safety in Russia (October 1917 – July 1918)

Importance. Scientific interest in studying the turning points of history contributes to the development of the most effective mechanisms for organizing the activities of state law enforcement agencies in modern conditions. The conduct of a special military operation and the current geopolitical situation require the state to take special measures to ensure law and order at key elements of government, including transport facilities. After the February and then the October Revolutions of 1917, the continuity of law enforcement at railway transport facilities was lost. Armed formations of various kinds were spontaneously created on the railways to commit crimes, seize and retain power. The experience of developing measures to ensure law and order in the context of armed interference in the railways’ activities, measures taken to stabilize the situation, is of scientific and practical importance. The purpose of the study is to determine the formation sequence of state agencies for ensuring the safety of railways during the formation of Soviet power, their competence and competence.Research Methods. The historicism principle along with the application of the historical and genetic method, make it possible to analyze the formation sequence of state agencies to ensure the safety of railways in the period from October 1917 to July 1918 and, based on individual facts, identify the special. The comparative method shows the general and special features of the phenomena considered within the framework of the formation of the entire law enforcement system of the Soviet state. Based on the analytical method, it is possible to compare the activities of the agencies created by the Soviet state to ensure law and order at railway transport facilities with the gendarmerie police units of the railways that operated before the February Revolution of 1917.Results and Discussion. Based on the conducted research, the reasons why the Soviet authority created centralized law enforcement agencies at railway transport facilities are clarified. The description of the events against which these organizations and services were created is given. Steps have been taken to explain the contradictions between the interests of local and central authorities in the period under review, as well as the prerequisites for which the Soviet authority went from completely denying the experience of previous agencies to the need to use it.Conclusions. It is concluded that the creation by the Soviet authoruty of law enforcement units and services and ensuring the safety of transport infrastructure facilities took place situationally, initially without any plan, through the denial of the legacy of tsarist Russia, centralization and resumption of the linear principle of the work of agencies, taking into account the military-political, economic situation in the country and the specifics of the object of law enforcement. The workers’ militsiya could not cope with the tasks of ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms at railway transport facilities at the first stage of its formation.

St. Petersburg — Petrograd — Leningrad Universities during 1905–1930s in Visual Sources

The article is focal research dedicated to reconstruction of the image of St. Petersburg — Petrograd — Leningrad universities in documentary photography. The study is based on photographic documents stored in Central State Archive of Photo, Phonographic and Cinema Documents of St. Petersburg, which is dated 1905 — the late 1930s. Author gives notes the specific of archival collection and gives and groups documents by topics, showing that the most popular plots were about students and faculty members as well as the participation of universities in political events. Results of the research allow complementing the socio-cultural portrait of professors and students and to trace how changed the image of higher education in public discourse during the period under review. Visual sources contain incomplete statements. Documentary photography reflects milestones of transformation Imperial universities into the Soviet one, its role in public and political life. The pre-revolutionary university was one of the Russian Empire political centers. Students often initiated strikes with political demands. Lots of professors were members of the Cadet party. Photographing was conducted to order, so at that time portrait and group photographs depicting members of academic community prevailed. After revolution in February 1917, firstly Provisional Government, then Bolsheviks positioned universities as public educational institutes that was reflected in documentary photographs. In photos of Soviet time there was a trend towards democratization of students’ and university members’ image, that was also due to opening new type of universities for trained personnel in the shortest possible time. It was primarily done for agitation and implementation of initiatives of Soviet government. Higher education was tasked with bringing up a new generation of socialist intelligentsia, so universities were presented as institutions loyal to Bolsheviks, like institutions rebuilt their work in accordance to the communist ideology for sake of building future of the country.

УПРАЗДНЕНИЕ ИНСТИТУТА ЗЕМСКИХ УЧАСТКОВЫХ НАЧАЛЬНИКОВ В РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ В МАРТЕ 1917 Г. (НА ПРИМЕРЕ БЕЛОРУССКИХ ГУБЕРНИЙ)

The article deals in an abolition of the positions of Zemstvo district chiefs in the Belarusian provinces during the February Revolution of 1917. Positions were introduced in the Russian Empire in 1889 in order to strengthen government control over the peasantry. As a rule, the positions of Zemstvo district chiefs were taken over by local landlords. Those officials were subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Along with administrative powers, they were given judicial functions in relation to peasants (previously it was under the jurisdiction of justices of the peace). It contradicted the principle of separating the judiciary from administrative authority and put the peasants in an unequal legal position compared to other estates. In the Belarusian provinces the positions of Zemstvo district chiefs existed until March 1917, when their activity was terminated by the Provisional Government. The liquidation of those positions during the February Revolution looked like a completely natural measure in the context of trend of renewal and democratization of public life. At the same time, in practice, then often led to vacuum of judicial power in rural areas and made it almost impossible for local authorities to maintain law and order.

The Religious Theme in the Work of Grigory Gurkin

The article explores the religious theme in the works of Grigory Ivanovich Gurkin (1870–1937), the first professional artist of the Altai Mountains. A talented master of landscape, a pupil of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, Gurkin became widely known after his first solo exhibition in Tomsk in 1907. During the February Revolution he was elected chairman of the Altai Mountain Duma, for which he was politically persecuted by the Bolsheviks and had to hide in Mongolia and Tuva from 1919 to 1925. Homesickness forced Gurkin to return to the Altai Mountains, but he remained politically unreliable for the Soviet authorities, and in 1937 he was shot by the NKVD. After his rehabilitation in 1956, Gurkin’s life and work became the subject of many studies, and after the establishment of the Altai Republic in 1992, Gurkin became a figure-symbol of national and cultural identity. In the conditions of reconstruction of Burkhanist and shamanistic practices in the Republic, it is relevant to study Gurkin’s pictorial and graphic works depicting religious beliefs that existed in the Altai Mountains in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. As a result of culturological and semiotic analysis, the interpretation of the artist’s works on religious themes is supplemented. The first painting on the theme of shamanism “Sacrificial Night” or “Kamlanie” (1895) revealed profane and sacred elements: the peculiarities of the material culture of the Kumandins and the theme of the sacred tree, the mirror-like surface of water and the symbolic unity of the worlds of the shamanic universe. From this work, reality in Gurkin’s painting and graphics is supplemented by mythological representations. In the painting “The First Ray of Christianity in Altai” Gurkin combined Orthodox and pagan pictures of the world to show the contradictory nature of the Christianisation process. Chet Chelpanov’s portrait contains a psychological characterisation of the leader of Burkhanism, and Gurkin’s detailed comments help to determine the time of the emergence of new phenomena in the religious culture of the Altai Mountains.

Продразверстка и геоэкономика Советской России

This article is a research which touches a number of subjects covering examination of “Prodrazverstka” and the early stage of the NEP impacts on the RSFSR agricultural sector recovery. It is proposed to conduct this examination from the point of view of geo-economics. The aim of this article is to put forward arguments that prove our hypothesis that the fractional restoration of the geoeconomic space of the former Russian Empire at the end of 1919-1920 contributed to the beginning of the post-war restoration of the RSFSR national economy, when such an institutional factor as the start of the NEP in 1921 was secondary in the process of the Russian recovery from the crisis. We prove that the re-integration of the country had led to the accession of product-surplus regions in order that to ground our point, which mentioned above. In connection with the purpose of the study we carry out the following most important tasks: regarding the published in the USSR materials containing the dynamics of volumes of the state provision from 1916 to 1921; updates data on the state of the Russian economy before and after the February and October revolutions of 1917 in order to decide the degree of influence of the Imperial heritage on the survival of Russians under the conditions of severe economic crisis of 1918 – 1920; the discovery of the connection between “Prodrazverstka” and the plowing’s size in Russian agriculture. Our work is based on a number of theoretical and statistical works, including statistical and analytical studies completed by contemporaries of the Russian Civil war. In particular, the materials of Oganovsky's book Essays on the economic geography of the USSR are insufficiently analyzed in post-Soviet Russian historiography, as well as a number of other works by Soviet economic historians, in particular, the voluminous work Of arutinyan A. A. and Markus B. L. “The development of the Soviet economy”, published in 1940, is mainly devoted to the 1920s – 1930s, but contains a lot of interesting materials on the Russian economy during the First world war and the Civil war. Despite the fact that the work Arutinian A. A. and Marcus B. L. written during the era of Stalinism, it is fairly objective regarding the evaluation of achievements of the Russian Empire to the beginning of the First world war and the February revolution. We also appeal to several collections of documents. Our article definitely contains a discussion with the mainstream of historical science both in Russia and abroad. In particular, our main conclusion, which follows our research hypothesis, states that the effectiveness of the NEP in bringing the country out of the crisis was exaggerated, the ground for getting out of the economic crisis was created at the end of 1919 during the Red army’s offensive along The Civil war fronts, when a number of bread-rich regions were recaptured from the Whites and the interventionists, this process was then repeated in 1920.

"Покарання для людей, які пройшли своє чесне життя без жодної плями": євреї-заручники під час Першої світової війни в Російській імперії

Introduction. With the outbreak of World War I, the Jewish population of the Russian Empire demonstrated its loyalty to the state in various ways, which drew approval even from representatives of those political circles among whom anti-Semitic views were widespread. However, after the first defeats at the front, the High Command began to look for those responsible for the wartime defeats and troubles. Jews in particular were identified as such internal enemies. Due to the potential danger from their possible actions, it became common to take hostages from among representatives of Jewish communities. The purpose of the article is to study the practice of taking hostages among the Jewish population of the Russian Empire and the territories occupied by tsarist troops during World War I. The results of the study of this issue will contribute to a better understanding of the social and political processes that took place in the Russian Empire during World War I and will be important for studying the causes of the outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine in 1918-1921. Methods. The study is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. A set of general scientific and special historical methods was used: methods of synthesis, induction, and analysis, as well as historical-genetic and historical-typological methods. Results. Hostage-taking among representatives of Jewish communities began in 1914, but only in 1915 it became an officially approved practice. Wealthy and respected community members were chosen as hostages and held in prisons or private quarters under strict supervision. They were to be responsible for the behavior of the Jews of their community and were to be executed if they were found to be spying or otherwise working for the enemy of one of their fellow Jews. Conclusions. Three main areas have been identified where hostage-taking was used to ensure the loyalty of Jews to Russian troops: Galicia, some governorates of the Kingdom of Poland, and some of the Baltic governorates of the empire. Jewish hostages from Galicia were sent to the "internal" governorates of the Russian Empire, as were most hostages from the Kingdom of Poland. In the Baltic states, however, this practice was not widespread because deportations were preferred to hostage-taking. Accordingly, there were almost no deportations of Jews with this status to the "internal" governorates. From August 1915, hostage-taking became a decentralized measure, remaining, however, until the February Revolution of 1917. The practice of hostage-taking caused considerable resistance and discontent among Jews, and contributed to the deepening of anti-Semitic sentiment among the Christian population of the Russian Empire.

Political Self-consciousness of Captured White General Staff Officers Based on the Materials of Soviet Questionnaires of the Early 1920s

Based on Soviet questionnaires of captured White General Staff officers of the early 1920s kept in the funds of the Russian State Military Archive, this article considers the problem of political self-identification of the “former” officers in Red captivity. The survey of former Whites was carried out to account for them. Sections of questionnaires about the prisoners’ attitude to the events of the February and October Revolutions, as well as about their current beliefs were of particular importance for assessing their views. The analysis of questionnaires as a mass historical source makes it possible to get an idea of the sociopolitical position of the group of captured White General Staff officers. On most issues, the prisoners’ views converged. As a rule, they accepted the February Revolution and did not accept the October Revolution. Also, they were highly critical of the old regime. Explanations of the reasons for the rejection of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks are of considerable interest. For many, an acceptable answer was an indication of a lack of understanding of the tasks of the new revolution. At the same time, some pointed out the real reasons for such rejection, i.e. the Red Terror, the collapse of the old army, and the hard Brest peace treaty. The strategies used by the questionnaire compilers in answering acute and potentially dangerous questions draw the researchers’ attention. Often, the answers indicated that the revolution was of a popular nature, and the author of the questionnaire sought to serve the people or welcomed the rule of the people and was in solidarity with the policy of the RCP(b). Some authors, not wanting to express their true views, declared the need to work honestly for the benefit of society. The “former” tried to give answers that would appeal to the new superiors and regulatory authorities, which would allow them to integrate into the command structure of the Red Army more quickly and remove from themselves the discriminatory status of former White officers who were on special registry.

Тайнопись на стальных магистралях: перехват донесений, дешифровка и защита сведений железнодорожными жандармами

The article examines the activities of the gendarmerie railway police in the Russian Empire during the peri-od from the last decade of the 19th century to the February Revolution, focusing on their efforts to intercept anti-government correspondence and enemy reports, decrypt them, and protect information about the transportation of military goods. The author uses extensive previously unpublished records from the gendarmerie police de-partments of the railways to analyze examples of secret writing (cryptograms) used by revolutionaries. The dis-advantages of the ciphers used include a logical connection between letters in the source text and positions in conditional alphabets, as well as a specific arrangement of letters that ensures that only one position of the condi-tional alphabet can correspond to each encrypted value. Militant groups of political radicals actively tried to re-cruit railway employees, especially telegraph operators, to cooperate in order to receive and transmit information about the passage of trains with valuable cargo. This information was crucial for planning and implementing expropriation actions. During the First World War, the critical importance of communication increased the im-portance of cryptography and cryptanalysis. To encrypt messages about the state of Russian railways, the enemy used an extensive arsenal of techniques, such as replacing keywords in texts by established methods; using ci-pherbooks containing various code combinations, and a combination of values replacement and rearrangement according to the developed matrices. The war gave an impetus to the development of cryptography, as ciphers became more complicated for cryptanalysts to decipher. The concealment of the contents of spy reports was en-sured not only through the transformation of texts but also through sophisticated methods of packaging infor-mation carriers in luggage, among food products, and the use of special ink. In charge of decryption, the railway gendarmes largely depended on the special department of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Af-fairs and the Ministry of War. These agencies provided the necessary keys. In turn, the railway gendarmerie gained valuable experience in intercepting letters containing secrets when they were transported by rail.

Screen vision of a public funeral ritual before and after the revolution

The subject of research in this work is the so-called "funeral" documentaries, the creation of which was initiated before the revolution. At all times, they carried an important informational and semantic load. They fixed the authority of the deceased in the eyes of the mass public. There were public and private funerals. The ritual was canonical in nature, which was first resonantly violated during the funeral of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, as evidenced by the preserved films. The article examines the features and modification of "funeral" films over time. They underwent a radical transformation with the advent of modern times after the February revolution of 1917 and the Bolsheviks came to power. A new funeral ritual with its own peculiarities and new meanings has been established on the cinema screen. The methodological basis of the research is a system analysis. The work used a cultural-historical method and an art historical analysis of preserved films and film materials. The novelty of this study is due to the fact that it has now become possible to use not only the most general impressions in the analysis, but to take a closer look and describe in sufficient detail the films and film documents being studied. This allows you to avoid annoying mistakes and inaccuracies in understanding and interpreting what you see. And it also reinforces the role of visual evidence in understanding history. This article is devoted to an overview of how the paradigm of the funeral ritual vision has changed since pre-revolutionary times during the transition to a new world after the 1917 revolution, as well as to the identification of meanings. Her conclusions are connected with a fundamental change in the main idea of the funeral ceremony – from saying goodbye to the deceased before sending him on a long journey, a transition was made to the idea of sacrifice and swearing an oath to continue the struggle for a bright future. The results of the research can be useful to professional documentary filmmakers, archivists and can be used in practical work and in training courses.

На переломе: Ф. А. Степун о революции 1917 г. и советском строительстве в России

The aim of the article is to highlight the historical, philosophical and religious views of Fyodor Augustovich Stepun (1884–1965), a scientist, philosopher, Christian thinker, about the 1917 Revolution and post-revolutionary Soviet construction in Russia. The relevance of the topic is justified, and the necessity of its further study is emphasized. The author characterizes the corpus of sources, including Stepun’s works of different years that comprehend this topic. The author emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of Stepun’s research strategy that combines scientific methods of knowledge, such as the critical method, the method of ideal-typical construction, the biographical method, the method of philosophical criticism of literary texts, and the main provisions of religious symbolism, which implies the study of history in the context of higher religious ideas. Based on such an interdisciplinary approach, Stepun considered the revolution as a religious and historical tragedy of the Russian people and the Christian world as a whole, while paying attention to a careful study of the factual material. Stepun’s ideas about the causes of the Revolution of 1917 are highlighted, in the structure of which he attributed a key place to the counterproductive policy of the Russian autocracy and World War I, which was unsuccessful for Russia. The complexity of Stepun’s ideas about the February and October revolutions is emphasized. Attention is focused on his positive attitude to the February Revolution, the main goal of which was the democratization of the Russian political system. Stepun also accepted the October Revolution, which raised the world-wide theme of socialism, connected, in his opinion, with the Christian project of the transformation of the world. The thinker’s ideas about the religious consciousness of the people as a factor of their political activity in the revolutionary epoch are analyzed. A positive attitude is observed. Stepun’s ideas about the revolutionary game, in his interpretation reflecting the population’s search for forms of social adaptation in the first post-revolutionary years, are considered. His deep rejection of Bolshevism as a political system with its God-fighting and class ideology, which contributed to the widespread state violence and immoralism in the country, is emphasized. It is concluded that Stepun’s conception of the 1917 Revolution and Soviet construction in Russia is meaningful, and that it is relevant to contemporary Russian society.

Cadet Ladies

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of women in the Constitutional Democratic Party from its very foundation up to the preparation of the organization for the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1917. The author seeks to reconstruct a socio-cultural portrait of “cadet ladies”, to find out the factors that could have influenced their entry into the party and to characterize their activities in the organization. Special attention is paid to the position in the party hierarchy that women could occupy, as well as to the opportunities for advancement in it. Cadet ladies were mainly responsible for maintaining the organizationʹs welfare, housekeeping, logistics, events and charitable institutions, but at the same time were actively involved in key decision-making, although they did not have the same political rights as men. Moreover, women gained the right to vote after the February Revolution, the number of Cadet ladies in key party positions increased dramatically, which confirms their importance to constitutional democrats. Characteristic features of the socio-cultural portrait of the women of the Peopleʹs Freedom Party are also highlighted. Cadet ladies grew up in post-reform Russia, when social and economic changes in the country and society had a huge impact on the process of womenʹs emancipation. The opportunity to receive a quality education, acquire a profession and work, to choose a spouse out of mutual respect and similarity of views — all these served as factors for acquiring the subjectivity that later allowed the cadet ladies to become the political phenomenon discussed in this article.

Vladimir Provincial Provisional Executive Committee and Preparations for the Elections to the Constituent Assembly

The main purpose of this article is to review the activities of the Vladimir Provincial Provisional Executive Committee dedicated to the preparation of the province population for the elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly. The Provisional Government, formed after the February Revolution of 1917, claimed only temporary powers, intending to transfer all the authority to the new government elected at the Constituent Assembly. To do this, in turn, it was necessary to elect delegates from all provinces and military districts, as well as to explain the importance of the Constituent Assembly election to the population. As a local self-government body in the province, the Vladimir Provincial Provisional Executive Committee assumed obligations to assist the Provisional Government in the performance of its tasks.

Vasily Mikhailovich Vershinin − a Commissar of the Romanov Family
 and a Chronicler of the Revolution

Vasily Mikhailovich Vershinin is a little-known participant of the February Revolution in Russia. His activities in 1917 were hardly subjected to research. Meanwhile, Vershinin was a confidant of the leader of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, also he was appointed three times as a commissar to oversee former members of the Romanov family. For the first time, as a member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, on March 7–9, 1917, he accompanied the abdicated Emperor Nicholas II from Mogilev to Tsarskoe Selo. In August, already as a representative of the Provisional Government, Vershinin participated in the relocation of the former tsar's family to Tobolsk. In September, he was appointed a government commissar supervising former members of the Imperial House of Romanov in the Crimea, where the mother of Nicholas II, Maria Feodorovna, his two sisters,
 Olga and Xenia, and other members of the royal family were kept under arrest. In addition, V.M. Vershinin is the author and initiator of unique historic documents – the journals of Nicholas II journeys to Tsarskoe Selo and Tobolsk, as well as the
 «Protocol of the February Revolution». The «Protocol», the only copy of which Vershinin took into exile, was drawn up by deputies of the State Duma who were eyewitnesses of the events that took place in Petrograd and the Tauride Palace on the first days of the revolution. The article uses previously unpublished archival materials
 and corrects historiographic errors